Tim Williams recognised by the Royal Asiatic Society

Tim Williams - Professor Tim Williams (UCL Institute of Archaeology) has been awarded the Sir Richard Burton Medal 2022 by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for his long-running exploration, archaeological, and documentation projects in Beirut and Central Asia. Tim Williams, Professor of Silk Roads Archaeology at the Institute, is known for his collaborations with local partners on the Silk Roads and for work on the UNESCO World Heritage nomination of the Silks Roads, including the ICOMOS Silk Roads thematic study. Professor Williams has worked in circumstances and regions which are extremely challenging, both in terms of politics and the local conditions. He has always ensured that local institutions and people are involved and engaged in the work, and that the results of his explorations and excavations are made widely available online and in print in local languages. He has led the international  Ancient Merv project  in Turkmenistan for over 20 years, a collaboration between the Turkmenistan Ministry of Culture, the Ancient Merv State Park and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, which aims to research and conserve the remains of one of the great historic cities of the Silk Roads. Professor Williams is currently leading the Arcadia-funded  Central Asian Archaeological Landscapes project  which is concerned with creating a geospatial inventory of sites across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, working with numerous local partner institutions.